The 17th BMW art car is slated to follow in its ancestors footsteps by competing in this year's running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car, an M3 GT2, has been worked over by artist Jeff Koons. Though critics first cried foul at the notion of putting Koons in the same league as Warhol, Calder and the like, the guy's preliminary sketches sound top notch.

Koons photographed multiple race cars at speed, then stretched the images and incorporated them into a massive digital collage. That collage is what's getting spread all over the M3 GT2's sexy flanks. Once finished, the car will get its debut at the Paris Center Pompidou before heading off to Le Mans to go fender to fender with the rest of the racing world.

The Paris Center Pompidou has hosted the BMW art car unveil since the center opened in 1977, where Roy Lichtenstein first showed off his fluid 320i. This year, the collage M3 GT2 will take the stage on June 1, and the car will boast the number 79 in tribute to Andy Warhol's 1979 M1. Press release after the jump.